Find Me
by Diana-sama
Summary: -Rated M for violence- Daine is dead. But Tortall needs her; Numair needs her. So, what will happen when a "replacement" comes along? Does she really want to be Daine for everyone else? NumairOC canon.
1. Blind in the Palace

Diana-sama

"Find Me"

Disclaimer: Me no own Tamora's stuffeh.

Summary: An older version of myself wakes up one night to find herself in the world of Tortall- in the palace, completely naked! Anyways, she gets some clothies, and Numair finds her. He's shocked at the resemblance between Daine and myself. Now he must teach me about this world, before the next great war comes. Numair/OC and previous Daine/Numair, all normal couples other than that.

1. Blind in the Palace

Dark clouds gathered suddenly over the grim, cold mountain on which a shocked group had stopped as if a wind god had gasped above them. Each of the faces held an expression of pain, grief, and surprise. The wind howled, shrieking at the scene. Of all the humans, one man in particular looked horrified. His lips trembled between the black of his beard. His fingers twitched unconsciously as a tear slipped from his dark eyes. The emotions came to him at a rush as he stared at his love's corpse.

"DAINE!"

Around the world, animals of all shapes and sizes screamed with him at this great loss.

Diane sneezed abruptly. Her nose twitched a bit as she reached for a tissue, smiling softly, at the anime-iduced thought, _'Someone's thinking of me! Hee hee._'

Her room was littered with books and old homework and Dungeons & Dragons crap, looking a complete mess. Currently, she sat contentedly in the mess at her computer. The screen showed her 'Happy Birthday' background, a picture of Harry Potter and his friends having a birthday party, with the words 'Harry Potter' in 'Happy Birthday, Harry Potter!' crossed out and 'Diana' scribbled above it. A BLgame Winamp skin showed the title of the light music floating from the speakers: "Defying Gravity".

A pop-up notification appeared abruptly and Diane's smile broke into a grin.

REMINDER: One week until birthday! .

"And I'll finally be seventeen!" she squealed. She glanced over at the mirror on her closet doors excitedly. Her brown hair had once again grown long and curly. Her stormy-blue eyes were cheerful behind her thick, almond-shaped glasses. Miraculously, she had gained a light tan over the summer. Today she wore a D&D tee-shirt and blue jeans.

"Bed. Now," her mother growled, sticking her head in the door and glaring at her eldest. "It's. Past. MIDNIGHT."

Giggling sheepishly, Diana clicked off her monitor and speakers and hopped into bed. Her mother flipped off the lights, irked. "Oyasumi-nasai, o-kaa," Diana smiled nervously.

"Good. Night." The door closed.

Chuckling quietly, a bit worried for what tomorrow morning would bring, the sixteen-year-old fell asleep- unaware that her mother's annoyance would be the least of her troubles.

She woke abruptly. She'd been awoken by the strange feel of cold, hard stone beneath her. Sitting up, Diane blushed. All her clothes and personal items were gone, leaving her bare (and freezing!). A shiver crawled over her entire body and she wondered how in the world she came to be here, naked.

Either way, she couldn't stand the cold that assaulted her bare skin. She stood and walked carefully, hands out in front of her like a blind person. Her glasses weren't around, so she practically was blind. (20/20 vision is normal. I have 20/400 currently, and it gets worse every year.) The only things she could make out were things a few inches from her face and the very fuzzy colors of things around her. From what she could see, Diane guessed she was in a long hallway of these stones, and that patch of fuzzy brown was probably a door.

She was right. Reached the brown, she felt it and discovered it was definitely hard wood, and she felt around for a moment to find the large metal handle. She gently pushed open the door, peering inside.

No peachy colors. That meant no humans- if wherever she was even had humans. She stepped inside and closed the door, walking around the room carefully, searching for something she could put on. Almost immediately, she found a chest and opened it, feeling cloth inside. It felt like silk.

She used her hands to measure out the length of each garment until she found one that was a dress. It was light blue in color and also made of a silky material. She put it on and found it was actually a good fit, as if the person who had owned this dress had been expecting her.

Her loose hair had started to annoy her. Normally she wore a ponytail on her wristband for when that happened, but of course, she didn't have one here. Searching through the chest some more, she found a piece of blue cloth she recognized as something you could fold over your head like a bandana. She put that on too.

She searched through the room a bit more, but found little more she could see. There were a few books and written-on parchment, but that was no good. After spending a minute resting on the bed, she stood once again and exited the room, continuing down the hallway blindly.

Meanwhile, Numair tossed and turned in his sleep, his mind plagued with nightmare visions of his dead love trying to wake him up. _"Numair!" _she pleaded in one such vision._ "Find me...! Find me! Please, Numair- find me!"_

He sat up uncomfortably, awakened by such a dream for at least the third time that night. Sighing, the mage decided sleep wouldn't be worth it anymore, so he stood and pulled on some loose, comfortable clothes- black for grieving. "I wonder if I'll ever stop grieving," he murmured quietly.

_Find me!_ The dream flashed in his mind. Grumbling, he reluctantly decided his dreams may have been important. They were reoccuring, if only for one night, and reoccuring dreams were signs from the gods. '_But why would Gainel send me images of.. Daine, asking me to find her?_' he thought. '_...oh well, I guess._'

Wandering the palace corridors, he'd been here ever since the "incident" as his friends so elegantly avoided it, Numair stopped dead in his tracks when he saw a girl wandering near the hallway toward the Library. Her hands were outstretched and her eyes unfocused, as if walking forward blindly. The blue dress and bandana he recognized to belong to Alanna's things- but Alanna was at her home, Pirate's Swoop, and she certainly didn't look a bit like this particular girl, whose presence made his throat go dry.

She was the mirror image of Daine.

"Hello?" she called unsurely, blurry eyes looking toward him. Even her voice was the same as Daine's, a light a beautiful soprano pitch. "Is someone there?"

"Daine," he breathed. He didn't know how, or why, or anything at that moment, except that she was here. "Daine!" he cried, running toward her.

She blinked at him as he reached her, her hands stretching out to meet him. "H-hello?" she asked again. "Who are you?"

"Numair," he replied quickly, pulling her close to him. "It's me, Daine, Daine, it's me-"

"Numair?" she repeated, surprised. Her tone indicated she recognized him. Her eyes remained blurry as she looked at him for some reason, and she used her hands to reach up and gently touch his face, his beard, his hair. "Numair from Tortall?"

"Yes, Daine, it's me," his voice became a little less sure as he realized something was different with her. Had-had she gone blind or something? "Daine, what's the matter- you can't see...?"

"My name is Diane," she corrected him, quietly. "And I don't know where I am, or where my glasses are. I can't see a thing. Are you really Numair?"

His face fell, his heart still clinging to hope. "Diane?" he repeated. "You... you're in Tortall. Why do you look so much like Daine?" he asked the last bit in a whisper.

Diane could hear his upset. "I-I don't know... I've looked like her since I was thirteen. Why..? Has something... happened to her?"

"She's... dead."

The girl's stormy blue eyes widened. Numair studied them closely, recognizing them to be identical to Daine's. "Dead?" the exclamation was more a statement than a question. She was quiet for a long bit, as Numair simply was comforted and hopeful by her presence. "Maybe that's why I'm here," she said quietly. "I am almost identical to Daine physically. Though... our personalities are a bit different. I wish I could see you," she ended toward Numair.

How he had wished to see her, before! Somehow, he couldn't speak. This was just too much, probably some strange dream-

"It's like a dream," Diane murmured, almost exactly in tune with his own thoughts. "Numair?" He still didn't speak. Diane took that as he was listening. "Have you ever heard of a place called America?" He shook his head a bit. "Or Virginia?" Another tiny shake. "Then, I really am in Tortall... this isn't my world."

"Huh?" he managed. Gods, he sounded stupid!

"I come from a world where you- and Daine- and Alanna, Jonathan, everyone- are all legends. I read about you in storybooks... but- in the stories... Daine never died." She looked a little confused.

He blinked. "Another world? I've never heard of things like that happening, between two Material Planes anyways..."

"It's theorized a lot on my world, that's how I know about it. Though my world seems to have forgotten magic, the theory of magic is still studied by many. I was a bit obsessed with my studies," she giggled a little. "Just a 'bit'."

"Why would you be here, then?" he asked slowly. '_Do I really want to know the answer?_'

"Daine was said never to have died in the stories," she replied, thinking hard, "so perhaps she wasn't supposed to, and I'm some odd replacement. Or perhaps it was a mere accident in the threads of the Universe. A 'hiccup,' per say. Those two are the first that pop into my head," she stopped. "Numair?" she murmured quietly, trying to peer into his eyes and discover why he was silent.

Numair fought to stop himself from giving her a crushing hug or yelling at her. Was she here to relieve his sorrow, or to torture his loss? While he struggled internally, Diane leaned forward and gingerly felt his face with her hands, still trying to fathom his dark eyes. "Numair? Is something wrong...?" He couldn't prevent himself from doing it- he kissed her, rough, hard, and suddenly. How he had missed her!

Diane stared at him for a second, surprised at his suddenness. She made a tiny noise when he did it, not because it was a kiss, but because of the surprise- she'd been kissed plenty of times before back in her world. This kiss made her toes curl, and sent a strange, forboding shiver up her back.

The kiss broke- who had broken it, neither could tell- and Diane stuttered, flushing, "N-N-N-Num-mair?" He opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted.

"Numair?" a page boy questioned, coming around the corner toward the Library. He spotted Diane and gawked. "DAINE?"

Diane blinked. "Eh?"

"Y-you're back!" the boy grinned in amazement. "Numair! What happened?"

Numair received the boy's appearance in stride. "I'm not sure yet, Roald- I only found her here recently. Could you do me an errand and get your parents for me before you go to your duties today?"

"Yes, sure!" he shouted excitedly, running off.

Diane looked back at Numair. "Huh? What's going on?"

"This is something important, obviously," he said, not really answering the question.

She frowned and put her hands on her hips impatiently. "Well, I suppose so, what with me being in a different world and Daine being dead when she's not supposed to and all-" She stopped herself, noticing the change in Numair emotionally. She didn't need sight to tell she'd just stabbed him by bringing that up so bluntly. She frowned, agitated with herself but not wanting to provoke another kiss- though kisses were definitely more welcome than the stupid confusion going on right now. "Sorry," she mumbled. "But it's true. And if you're going to deal with me, you have to deal with all that!"

He looked at her, troubled. She couldn't tell his thoughts anymore, his expression hidden from her. "I know," he said calmly, and his calm worried Diane a little more. "Come on, I'm going to take you to Jonathan and Thayet, they have to see this to believe it," he said the last part under his breath.

"Okay," Diane answered slowly. Numair started walking away, toward the King and Queen's rooms. After a few moments Diane realized he was leaving without her. "Numair! Wait!"

He turned and saw her pitifully walking to him with her hands outstretched again. She hurried, thinking he was still walking. There was almost a desperation to her hurried, cautious walking, as if she needed to stay with him for more than simple reasons. "Wait," she called out again, and nearly stumbled.

"I'm right here," he said reassuringly, moving back toward her and helping her steady. She smiled toward him.

"Oh."

Gently, he laid his left hand over her eyes, while his right hand remained on her elbow, where it had been earlier to help her be steady. A pearly white light shimmered and Diane flinched, blinking at the brightness. When he removed his hand, she could see again. Her eyes widened as she really took him in.

He certainly was handsome. He was tall and darkly tanned, his appearance adding to the feeling of protection she felt near him. His dark eyes were slightly wet, though he hadn't shed a tear, from being so close to having the one he loved return.

Diana turned a light shade of pink when she realized he had noticed her staring. "Let's go," she muttered, looking away and trying to stifle her blush.

A/N: Slightly awkward ending, I know, but I was looking really hard for a space between chapters one and two ; Anyways, it's been forever and a day since I've actually been on FFN! Hoo boyo. I already have chapter 2 done as well, and I'm working on chapter three. I'm estimating that I'll get through about six chapters before becoming disinterested, so look forward to six chapters. ;


	2. Hello Tortall!

Diana-sama

"Find Me"

Disclaimer: Hah! Don't I wish.

Summary: An older version of myself wakes up one night to find herself in the world of Tortall- in the palace, completely naked! Anyways, she gets some clothies, and Numair finds her. He's shocked at the resemblance between Daine and myself. Now he must teach me about this world, before the next great war comes. Numair/OC and previous Daine/Numair, all normal couples other than that.

2. Hello Tortall!

Diane shifted uncomfortably in the seat provided for her. Two handsome and beautiful monarchs gaped at her like she was a zombie mutant or something. She nibbled on her finger to avoid having to speak, a bad habit she'd had for years.

"She really is the exact image of Daine," King Jonathan breathed. "The resemblance is... uncanny." Queen Thayet merely nodded. Skysong, who had been there as well, watched Diane with curiosity.

Diane looked down at her lap, avoiding eye contact with anyone. '_What the hell do they want from me?_' she thought angrily, worriedly. '_I'm no Wildmage! I'm not very good with animals at all, except my kittens..._' "I'm sorry I can't help answer and questions my presence brings up, Your Majesties," she said formally. "I know many theories of magic, but in order for anything to be proven, I would need to speak to the Gods themselves, and have tests run- physical, mental, and magical. World-hopping is a very complicated thing."

"I've never even heard of such a thing before," Thayet said.

"Neither have I," Numair and Jonathan said at almost the same time. They grinned at each other.

Diane smiled, but the smile was empty. "Well, in order to jump from one world to another- one dimension, I should say, as yours contains more than one plane of existance- there is one of two necessary things in all theories: a lot of raw, magical power, or a 'hiccup'. If you believe in the magical power theories, then you must also believe that the person traveling between existances must have a great mental, physical and emotional strength in order to survive unharmed. Also, the differences in matter between two worlds can possess a problem- in my world, I may have been sleeping in a bed, but in your world, what if there had been a wall in my place? Would I replace the wall's matter? Would I be in a different spot? Different questions, different theories.

"If you believe in the Universes having a 'hiccup', or sometimes believed to be in alignment, it is a very improbable thing though it could make sense because of the zillions of zillions of zillions of infinities of universes out there. Basically, one theory is that there is a 'fabric' that makes up the Universe- the entirety of all things- and that 'fabric' can sometimes unravel between two dimensions, and things and people can fall through. This is unlikely, because what if I had fallen through but not my lungs? Or my bones but not my muscle? It's a very tiny probability for this theory. Another is that if two dimensions are in alignment, with every exact particle in the exact same place at the exact same time, a switch can be made. This is disproven here, because Daine and I did not switch places."

She finished abruptly, looking up at the slightly lost faces of the people around her. "I know, I'm a nerd," she looked back down at her hands pathetically. "I've spent my life dedicated to silly things like this, things the people in my world don't believe can happen. People think I'm stupid for wasting my time."

"But it looks like this information came in handy," Jonathan murmured wryly. Diane looked up and managed a half-hearted smile at him.

"Looks like, I suppose."

Numair inwardly frowned at her. '_She hasn't smiled once since she's been here._' "You want to go back, don't you? You miss your home." His voice was that strange, calm tone again.

Diane looked up at him, her expression slightly angry. "Don't jump to conclusions, you don't know me," she snapped, irritated. "I'm not going back again- ever. I swear it." The seriousness of her voice was frightening.

"You don't miss your family?" Thayet asked, wondering. '_Did she have her family killed like Daine's? Or... something _worse_, possibly?_' "Not at all?"

"You can't make me go back," she mumbled. "Not now- not when I'm finally here... it's too perfect to go back." She realized what she was saying and looked up at them apologetically. "Oops. Sorry, I didn't mean to ramble." To Thayet's question, she said, "Not really. I mean, they didn't much want me back home. Not many people cared for me." She shrugged, smiling at them, then frowning. "And I don't want sympathy, so none of it."

They were silent. Changing the subject, she looked at Numair hopefully. "Do I have magic?" she asked, trying to keep herself from seeming too eager. "Any at all? Magic was... disbelieved by my community at home."

"I can sense the Gift from you," Jonathan answered before Numair could speak. "Though, it's very tiny, and faint, as if suppressed or something."

"You have faint wild magic as well," said Numair. "And, I agree with Jon, it does seem- suppressed."

Diane's eyes sparkled. "Really?" she squeaked. The nodded. "...W-wow."

"What do you mean by, suppressed?" Thayet asked her husband.

Abruptly, the door burst open. Everyone glanced to it. Kit/Skysong chirped a note of annoyance. "Sorry I'm late," the short, redheaded knight smiled at the group.

"Wow," Diane murmured. "The Song of the Lioness was the greatest of our stories," she stared at Alanna intently, awed. "I read that one at least four times over."

"Huh?" Alanna looked to the others.

"She's from a different world, supposedly." That was Jon. "And in her world, Tortall and it's heroes are legends and stories."

Diane nodded. "Alanna, Daine, and two other girls were the most popular."

"What two other girls?" Alanna asked suspiciously.

"I don't think I should say... I don't know if they have accomplished what they are destined yet." She thought for a moment. "How old is your Thom? By that I can estimate where I am, timeline-wise."

"He's nearly ten," she answered. Alanna looked pale. "Is Thom-?"

"No! No, he's fine, as far as I know. The stories only went so far." Diane calculated. "I know... about... six more years of story. That's as far as they went."

"And how far back?" asked Numair.

"Well, I haven't been able to get my hands on everything. The farthest back I ever read was when Alanna was about nine, but there were stories dating back two hundred years from that I hadn't gotten to read yet."

She twisted her fingers as Alanna took a seat. "I loved those stories to death. Those books were more prized than my china "Memories" box. I must have read each book at least twice, even the ones that were more difficult, about politics and whatnot. I read the Lioness series four times over completely, not including when I would just grab a book off my shelf and dive in. The Immortals series about Daine I read several times through." She paused. "I was interested by that series a lot because we looked so alike."

"Say that again," Thayet agreed dryly.

Suddenly, Kitten let out a shrill cry. Diane twitched, looking around wildly. "What's that- that- singing?" she exclaimed, reaching up and scratching desperately at her ears. "It hurts!"

The castle shook. Everyone scrambled to their feet except Diane, who still tried to muffle the sound. "It's not your ears, it's your mind," Numair told her, grabbing her arms to stop her from clawing her own ears off. Already there were bleeding scratches.

"It's an attack from the Immortals," Alanna growled, fingering something around her neck. "And it looks like a few mages, too."

"Owowowowowow," Diane repeated over and over like a mantra, crying from pain. She stood still, struggling against Numair's firm grip on her wrists.

"Focus! Just relax!" Numair tried to catch her attention and failed. The others had already left the room by now. Gently, he pushed a wave of magic into the girl to calm her down and shield her from most of the sound. She shut up abruptly.

"No one ever said it hurt so much," she whispered.

Numair calmly touched her bloody ears with his Gift, healing them and cleansing them from infection. He wiped off the blood with a handkerchief or something, pulled from a sleeve. "Shhh, magelet, you're okay," he crooned, using soft words to try and calm her.

Diane wiped her face on her shirt. "Did you just call me 'magelet'?" she asked.

"It means 'little mage,' well, not technically, but-"

"Isn't that what you called Daine?" she interrupted.

Numair went quiet. "Yes," he answered finally, standing.

Diane stood up as well. '_I don't really know what to say to that,_' she thought. "I'm sorry," she managed, mentally slapping herself for being so stupid and awkward.

The black robe didn't reply. Instead, he ran out after Jonathan and the women, Diane hurrying to follow. After a few minutes of dashing through a maze of hallways- Diane was sure she was lost now- they reached a door that led to the outside, and went through.

She gasped.

Four creatures flew through the air on huge, majestic dragon wings. Each creature had three heads: a horned goat, a mane-less lion, and a dragon. It's hindquarters were that of a big goat, and it's forequarters of a giant lion. Two had red scales on their dragon heads, while another had blue, and the last black.

Numair ran toward where Jonathan was, tucked in between two columns that hid him from obvious sight. Diane shook her head. Chimeras had much better sight than average humans.

Sizing up the situation as best she could- this was her first battle, after all- she knew the humans could win. If at least twenty out of all the archers could shoot one beast, it would go down, because arrows cause approximately 4 hit points of damage and Chimeras have about eighty hit points total. If the mages figured out which spells worked the best, then eight or so could handle a Chimera. Since there were four, it would take twice that many to kill them, but they could win.

On the other hand, the Chimeras were fierce creatures. Challenge Rating 7. On a full attack, they could get off two bite attacks, a gore attack, and two claw attacks. On average, that did 25 hit points of damage. That wasn't including each creature's breath weapon from the dragon head, which was different for their colors. The reds could breathe fire every 18 seconds or so, the black could breathe acid, and the blue lightning.

"Numair!" Diane called, going to him. He didn't look away from casting spells, but Diane thought she had his attention. "Use ranged touch-attack spells against it, or spells with no saves. These things have very powerful saves.."

"What?" he asked, not understanding at all.

"Area-of-effect spells! Spells that effect a spot, not a creature. These creatures can shake off most of the direct spells thrown at them."

"How do you know this?" Jonathan asked, jumping into the conversation.

Diane sniffed. "I told you I studied these things. Chimeras were popular legend. I have a mem'ry for myths, that's all."

Numair cast, and black fire jumped from his hands, disappeared, and reappeared next to the blue-scaled Chimera in a giant explosion of fire. Diane grinned when the Chimera staggered out of the flames, it's goat and lion heads obviously singed. The grin disappeared when it turned it's angry eyes toward the exact spot they hid.

'_Uh-oh._'


End file.
